DHS to launch enterprise data system in January

Oct. 28, 2013 - 04:59PM
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Rafael Borras undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, testifies March 19 before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (Gannett Government Media Corp.)

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The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing an enterprise-wide data-collection system that will enable better and faster budget decisions, according to top DHS officials.

Rafael Borras, DHS’ undersecretary for management, said the system — set to go live in January — will quickly gather data it now takes weeks to pull together. The data will help agency leaders decide where to spend limited agency resources, he told the Executive Leadership Conference on Monday in Williamsburg, Va.

Keith Trippie, DHS’ executive director of the Enterprise Systems Development Office, said the department has created standard data sets across all of its components, and the new system will allow analysts to work with the data without IT training.

Trippie said that, as an example, the agency could pull various data to figure out how the attrition rate of GS-14 law enforcement officers in Texas would be affected by the overall unemployment rate. Such an exercise would now require numerous phone calls, data calls and spreadsheets.

DHS is still trying to speed up the flow of components’ various databases to the common platform and figuring out how to blend and manage disparate data sets, such as salary, real estate and acquisition information.

“We have a long way to go, but we have made a lot of progress up to this point,” Trippie said.